Working with Pictures in PowerPoint 2016

In this chapter from My PowerPoint 2016, learn how to insert and format pictures in PowerPoint 2016. Specific topics in this chapter include inserting pictures, cropping and resizing pictures, formatting pictures, compressing pictures, and creating a photo album.

This chapter is from the book

In this chapter, you will learn about inserting and formatting pictures. Specific topics in this chapter include the following:

Inserting pictures

Cropping and resizing pictures

Formatting pictures

Compressing pictures

Creating a photo album

PowerPoint makes it easy to insert pictures both from your computer and from online locations. You can format inserted pictures in dozens of ways in PowerPoint. Apply a picture style to get a complete look with one click. Add a color tint to a series of random pictures to help them look more cohesive. Crop to fit your slide, drop out backgrounds, correct fuzziness—the list goes on and on....

Images can help tell your story and engage your audience, but you want to be careful when sourcing them. Make sure that the picture tells the story you’re trying to tell and that it’s appropriate for the audience.

Especially when searching online, you must be careful not to violate copyright laws. Just because an image is on the Web doesn’t mean you have the right to use it in your presentation. Although PowerPoint searches by default for images available for use through Creative Commons licenses, in many cases, you’re better off purchasing inexpensive royalty-free stock photos.

Inserting Pictures

There are quite a few ways to insert pictures onto a slide. You can use the picture tools on the Insert tab, you can use content placeholders, and you can use picture placeholders. We’ll discuss all of these methods and more in this section.

Insert Pictures from Your Hard Drive

If you’ve already downloaded a picture to your hard drive, here’s how to insert it.

Insert a new slide into your presentation. Choose a layout that uses a content or picture placeholder.

Click the Pictures icon in the placeholder. Alternatively, click the Pictures button on the Insert tab of the Ribbon.

Find the picture on your computer. Select it and click Insert.

Choose the Correct Layout

When there is an empty content or picture placeholder on your slide, PowerPoint fills it with the picture even if you use the tools on the Ribbon to insert the image. If you don’t want this to happen, choose a layout such as Title Only or Blank that doesn’t have content or picture placeholders. Otherwise, you can temporarily fill the placeholder with text or other content—even just a space will work—and delete it after you’ve inserted the picture.

Insert Online Pictures

With Online Pictures, you can search for pictures online or insert them from OneDrive and other online storage.

Alternatively, click the Online Pictures icon on the Insert tab of the Ribbon.

If the picture is stored on OneDrive, click the Browse button to see your files and folders on OneDrive.

If the picture is stored on Facebook or Flickr, click the icons at the bottom of the Insert Pictures dialog box to connect to your account.

If you don’t already have an image, you can search for pictures using Bing Image Search. Enter the search terms and press Enter to begin.

Adding Places

If your images are stored in a location that isn’t listed in the Insert Pictures dialog box, you may be able to add the location. To do so, click File, Account, Add a Service to see options for adding YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and SharePoint accounts, among others.

Note that the initial search results in images that are available to use under Creative Commons licensing, as explained in the informational banner. Specifics about the image appear in the lower-left corner of the Insert Pictures dialog box. Click that link to go to the image site and double-check for any license restrictions or attributions you must include when you use the image.

Click the X to minimize the informational banner about Creative Commons search results so you can see more thumbnails in the dialog box.

Clicking Show All Web Results removes the search filter that shows you only images licensed under Creative Commons. Be careful if you do this! You’ll see more results, but you will need to check the copyright and any license restrictions for each image to ensure you’re not using it illegally. In most cases, you should purchase the image in order to use it.

Hover over a thumbnail and click the magnification icon to see a larger thumbnail.

Click a thumbnail to select it and then click Insert to add it to your slide. Press Ctrl and click thumbnails to select multiple images or use Shift+click to select a contiguous range.

What Is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons gives photographers and other artists a free, standardized process to let the public use and share their creative work. There are many levels of Creative Commons licensing: Some levels require attribution, some allow only noncommercial work, and so on. To learn more about this, look up Creative Commons in your favorite search engine.

Insert Screen Captures

Use this feature when you want to include a screenshot in your presentation and don’t have a screenshot utility handy.

Other open applications appear in the Available Windows gallery. Click a thumbnail to add it to your slide.

Or click Screen Clipping to take a quick snapshot of part of the screen. PowerPoint automatically takes you to a view of the screen as it was just before you switched to PowerPoint and clicked Insert, Screenshot.

When the screen ghosts and your mouse pointer becomes a crosshair, click and drag to indicate the area of the screen to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen grab will be inserted onto your slide.

Tips for Using Insert Screenshot

If a window or an application is minimized, it won’t appear in the Available Windows gallery. Use the buttons on the Windows taskbar to switch to the application, size and position its window, and then immediately switch to PowerPoint and click Insert, Screenshot.

If the window or application still doesn’t appear in the Available Windows gallery, use Screen Clipping to snag it. Use the same process to size the window; then click the button on the Windows taskbar to move back to PowerPoint and click Insert, Screenshot, Screen Clipping.

Turn Pictures into SmartArt

Some SmartArt graphics have picture placeholders that you can click to add images from your hard drive or online storage locations. (You’ll learn about this topic in Chapter 6, “Creating Diagrams and Tables.”) If you already have pictures inserted onto your slide, though, use the following technique to turn them into a SmartArt graphic.

On the Picture Tools Format tab, click Picture Layout and then choose a SmartArt layout from the gallery. Remember that you can point to different selections in the gallery to preview the effect on the slide before you click to apply a SmartArt layout.

Complete the SmartArt diagram by adding text, changing colors, or even changing to a different Picture diagram layout on the SmartArt Tools Design and Format contextual tabs that appear when you select the SmartArt graphic you just created. To learn more about formatting SmartArt graphics, see Chapter 6.